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Dock 3.0: Quick app switching for jailbroken iPhone 2.0 phones

All > Tech > Software > Dock 3.0: Quick app switching for jailbroken iPhone 2.0 phones by natetrue

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Back in the old iPhone 1.x firmwares, I made an app called Dock that would allow you to switch between apps quickly, without needing to go back to the home screen.

Then iPhone firmware 2.0 came out and turned everything on its head! I had to completely rewrite Dock in order to get it working in 2.0, and of course, I added some handy extra features along the way.

Features, you say? Dock:
- Sorts apps by categories, making large amounts of apps easy to manage
- Imports Favorites entries from Phone with pictures, into the "Speed Dial" category
- Can be disabled in specific applications
- Has a Prefs app that lets you quickly categorize apps the way you want them
- Has two "sunburst" modes for even quicker switching
- Can see apps hidden by Poof

To use, install from Cydia (props to Shaun Erickson for packaging), and reboot your phone. The yellow line across the bottom of your screen shows you that Dock is active. Now slide your finger up from the bottom of the screen, slowly. Dock will activate and you can select a category. Then move your finger further up the screen to select an app. Let go to launch, or slide back down to cancel.

The sunbursts are fun little things (new to 3.1). They can be set to any category, or to be a list of most recently used apps. Drag up from the left or right side of the bottom edge of the screen, and they will come up. Let go to launch, drag back to bottom to cancel.

To categorize your apps, just open Dock Prefs.

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Choose the category you want to move from, then the app, then a new category for that app.

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When you're done, hit Back and choose Restart SpringBoard at the bottom to apply the changes.

I've got more features planned for Dock, including something to quickly switch between the most recently used apps.

Dock is also open-source, under LGPL. Source code for Dock

How Dock works

Dock used to work by running as a separate application that asserted its windows above others. Now, though, the 2.0 firmware doesn't allow that to happen. Instead, it uses Jay Freeman's MobileSubstrate to inject code directly into SpringBoard. Then its windows are asserted above apps in the usual fashion.

MobileSubstrate is cool because it allows developers to inject their code into any app, intercepting messages to any objects, and running and modifying anything they want. This might sound like a dangerous thing (and it is), but it also opens possibilities to add features to any aspect of the phone.

Stay tuned for more fancy Dock features!

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Comments:

Posted by natetrue 19 weeks ago ( 19-Aug-2008 14:50:34 )

Also, to modify category icons, add them to /Applications/dock2prefs.app/icons

Posted by trusol 19 weeks ago ( 19-Aug-2008 19:23:42 )

I know these things you probably already consider but just want to know for sure.
- Delete Categories
- *bug* Disable dock for apps doesnt work (maybe its just me?)
+ Instead of disable for dock, you should just be able to remove the APP from a category.
- *bug* Hidden apps (POOF!) dont show up

Posted by kel 19 weeks ago ( 19-Aug-2008 19:43:10 )

Hey Nate any chance you make a back door for someone who used Poof to hide all there icons LOL??

Posted by trusol 19 weeks ago ( 19-Aug-2008 20:58:56 )

@kel , see this was what i was afraid of. But yeah if you have SSH on you can SSH your way back or your going to have to restore.

Posted by jltdhome 19 weeks ago ( 20-Aug-2008 04:51:13 )

Whats up Nate, first off, GREAT APP - thanks for the quick release. A couple things. Could there be an option to switch between the CATEGORY style and the OLD SUNBURST on the bottom right corner. It was great when I could just roll my thumb and QUICKLY start an application. The new style is a little hard to navigate through. Frankly its a lot easier to swipe my finder and push on the standard Application icon. From looking at the comments on MMI and Appleiphoneschool.com a lot of people share my thoughts on this. The old style was AWESOME. Also, im sure you know from the comments above... the POOF apps are not showing, not a big deal.

Posted by zurie 19 weeks ago ( 20-Aug-2008 07:53:20 )

Could be the "Categories" Killer.

A few suggestions.

1) release a new dock version immediately that allows the *Poof hidden icons to be displayed. For me the program I want to use (dock or categories) is the one that allows me to hide all my icons on my springboard so I don't have to scroll 16 pages of icons. if I am using dock to launch apps, why even have them on the springboard?

2) Program slows to a crawl when browsing large groups of icons "games" is a common one. Hopefully this can be overcome with optimization, but a good workaround would be to allow subfolder categories, ie: Games > Action > or Games > Classic / Games > Emulation you get the idea. This would keep the popups smaller and I've noticed a big speed improvement using this method.

feature requests:
I'd love the dock to be easier to launch? for me i keep hitting my dock icons on accident trying to get my finger on that 1 pixel sliver on the bottom of the phone? is there a trick to it? maybe some sort of double tap or side swipe? or touch the clock? maybe have multiple ways for people to launch it.. also figure that its launching in each program as well as on the springboard, so all programs may have a easier way of launching it? maybe doubletap home button?

sorry for the long comment :) keep up the good work! love it so far.

Posted by natetrue 19 weeks ago ( 20-Aug-2008 17:05:29 )

Just sent Dock 3.1 to Shaun for packaging.

Changes:
- "Sunburst" modes have configurable flat menus on the left and right
- Sees apps hidden by Poof
- (Hidden) category isn't shown in Dock
- Performance enhancements with large categories
- Refuses to work on top of Settings (interfered with Wifi password entry otherwise)

If you're impatient, paste this into a root SSH terminal on your iPhone to install:
apt-get install wget; cd /tmp; wget http://devices.natetrue.com/Dock-3.1.tgz; cd /; tar -xvzf /tmp/Dock-3.1.tgz; killall SpringBoard

This comment was edited at 2008-08-20 17:08:46

Posted by kel 19 weeks ago ( 20-Aug-2008 17:50:26 )

NATE YOU TRUELY ARE THE MAN!!!

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HARDWORK!

Posted by zurie 19 weeks ago ( 20-Aug-2008 17:53:56 )

thanks for the poof support! sunburst's were a clever surprise. :)

This comment was edited at 2008-08-20 17:54:23

Posted by jltdhome 19 weeks ago ( 21-Aug-2008 05:13:23 )

Is there a way we can add the yellow sun glow ourselves?

Posted by jafichan 19 weeks ago ( 22-Aug-2008 14:31:09 )

I just installed it trough the command line (apt-get install wget; cd /tmp; wget http://devices.natetrue.com/Dock-3.1.tgz; cd /; tar -xvzf /tmp/Dock-3.1.tgz; killall SpringBoard).

But now i want to remove it, so i'll be able to istall it directly from Cydia.

Can u tell me what command line i have to enter??

Many thanks natetrue!!

Posted by jltdhome 19 weeks ago ( 22-Aug-2008 20:26:48 )

Just install it through Cydia. It will install over the installation you already have. I did this and it worked for me.

Posted by beau 19 weeks ago ( 23-Aug-2008 18:00:56 )

any idea why camera, ipod and photos won't show up in the program display if they are hidden? They show up in dock preferences but no matter where i list them they will not display on the sunburst or slider at the bottom as long as they are hidden. No problem with any other apps, just these 3

Posted by jafichan 19 weeks ago ( 24-Aug-2008 08:55:26 )

I still cant find the dock package in cydia, and i refresh it many times!!! Any idea??

Posted by jltdhome 19 weeks ago ( 25-Aug-2008 04:32:01 )

Make sure you have the STE PACKAGING source in your Sources. http://repo.smxy.org/cydia/apt/

Posted by icecool 19 weeks ago ( 25-Aug-2008 08:44:27 )

Dock is a very cool App

You just need to make a option to rename and delete categorys.

Thanks a lot

Posted by tomit 18 weeks ago ( 27-Aug-2008 09:11:47 )

Absolutely awesome app, probably my favorite so far! I love that you made it work with Poof.

My only request would be to, if its possible, make the left and right scrolling scroll a touch farther with smaller movements. I generally use my thumb when one-handing my phone, and hitting apps that require that I move my thumb to the edge of the screen is really difficult.

For now I've resolved it by just breaking up categories further (games 1 and games 2, for instance), but having to move less distance on the screen to get from one end of the app icons to another would be awesome.

Again, fantastic app!

Posted by tomit 18 weeks ago ( 27-Aug-2008 09:18:22 )

Also:

"any idea why camera, ipod and photos won't show up in the program display if they are hidden? They show up in dock preferences but no matter where i list them they will not display on the sunburst or slider at the bottom as long as they are hidden. No problem with any other apps, just these 3"

Having the same issue...since those are all stock iPhone apps, I can't figure out why just those 3 would do that, lol. :)

Posted by zurie 18 weeks ago ( 27-Aug-2008 10:00:07 )

Nate, I had a great suggestion for a possible easier and more intuitive way of navigating the dock app.

1) you slide your thumb from the bottom up to launch the dock just like its current form.

2) you release your thumb from the screen. and the dock stays active. doubletap any grey area and the dock disapears "or" launches whatever its highlighting (for an app).

3) you swipe your finger from left to right or right to left and it SNAP moves whatever icon you are on 1 unit. so you wanna go left a few icons, swipe swipe swipe.

4) the same swiping technique to go up and down directories. like you swipe upwards on games, and games then pops up. the key difference is you don't have to hold your thumb down, everything is locked on screen until you doubletap to either launch or minimize the dock.

This would eliminate a ton of user issues. Here is where I have the most trouble.
a) when I try and launch a game or a prgram that has a hefty list, just releasing my thumb to activate the app sometimes moves the icon, its near impossible to keep the dock still on a large list and release your thumb... unless you are a surgeon.

b) like the person above said, having to navigate your fingers all the way to the side of the screen is really difficult and not very user friendly. by using my method of locking the dock open and swipe moving 1 at a time you are guaranteeing that everything always remains centered. you swipe from center. you double tap center. etc. total elimination of the side thumb not center issues.

c) I see 100% accuracy with launching apps by using the dock locking method, its virtually impossible to accidently launch the wrong app.

hopefully you'll take my suggestion in consideration :)

Posted by azor 16 weeks ago ( 10-Sep-2008 00:39:11 )

1) Yor software's amazingly useful!
2) I'm sorry to ask this, but I'm unable to find a way to add more categories for the applications (iPhone 2.0.2)... How is it supposed to be done?

Thanks.

Posted by kel 16 weeks ago ( 10-Sep-2008 12:03:51 )

Hey Nate,

Not sure if there is a fix for this yet but like the poster a few replys above said "any idea why camera, ipod and photos won't show up in the program display if they are hidden? They show up in dock preferences but no matter where i list them they will not display on the sunburst or slider at the bottom as long as they are hidden. No problem with any other apps, just these 3"

Posted by inigo 16 weeks ago ( 15-Sep-2008 03:08:10 )

This app is great, i must say. However after upgrading my iphone to 2.1 i am having problems with the hidden apps (poof). They don't show in dock, any of them!! I have the option in the settings enabled. Before upgrading it worked excellent. Any issues known? Anyone having the same problem?

Thanks a lot!

Posted by cmelbye 15 weeks ago ( 21-Sep-2008 22:28:29 )

:O Oh my gosh! It's Friend Book out in the wild! I'm still regretting that I didn't get a chance to snag FriendBook during the few hours it was up on the App Store :-(

Posted by natetrue 15 weeks ago ( 22-Sep-2008 20:17:14 )

That's not really so much of a coincidence, as I am a developer for Tapulous :)

Posted by ridstar 15 weeks ago ( 22-Sep-2008 22:02:57 )

Yo.. Natetrue Nice Dock app program I'm new around here!!! I've also notice that older versions of the Dock App had an sunburst effect with the new version of it is taken out =( I would've enjoyed having that feature.. anyway Good work and keep them coming ^^'

Posted by jltdhome 5 weeks ago ( 25-Nov-2008 21:46:54 )

NATEEEEE help me please. I updated to 2.2, jailbroke my phone, installed Dock and now everytime I try to use the Speed Dial sunburst or the botton up Speed Dial, it locks my phone, i have to reset it to get it to come back on. Any ideas?

Posted by autoentropy 2 weeks ago ( 17-Dec-2008 03:36:48 )

This comment was edited at 2008-12-17 07:10:25

Posted by autoentropy 2 weeks ago ( 17-Dec-2008 07:19:14 )

Hey man i have the same problem as beau but it is just the camera that is messed up.

For some reason i can see it in poof hidden but cannot see it in dockpref or on dock. But when i unhide it in poof in will show up in my dock.

HELP ME PLEASE AFTER THIS I WILL FEEL COMPLETE!!!

Thank you!